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Sun, 01 Mar 2015 00:32:31 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1The Power of Meditationhttp://sites.bu.edu/ombs/2014/02/08/the-power-of-meditation/
http://sites.bu.edu/ombs/2014/02/08/the-power-of-meditation/#commentsSun, 09 Feb 2014 01:31:06 +0000Elizabeth Virtgaymhttp://sites.bu.edu/ombs/?p=6768When the word meditation comes up, people usually think of Monks or Buddhists first. However, there is a reason they meditate so often; meditation does wonders for your brain, and here is how.
There are two main types of meditation: 1) Focused-attention meditation or ‘Mindful meditation‘ and 2) Open-monitoring meditation. In Mindful meditation, you focus on one specific thing ranging from your breathing, a specific sensation in your body, or a particular object in front of you.The key point is to focus on one thing without consideration to other thoughts or events happening around you. When any distractions occur, you must be quick to recognize it and turn your focus back to your focal point. Open-monitoring meditation is where you pay attention to all the things happening around you but you do not react to them.
Meditation has been associated with decreased default mode network activity and connectivity. The brain regions specifically affected are the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, thalamus, and the reticular formation. The frontal lobe is considered to be the most highly evolved part of the brain that is responsible for reasoning, planning, emotions, and self-conscious awareness. During meditation, the frontal cortex tends to go “offline”. The parietal lobe processes sensory information about the surrounding world and during meditation, activity in the parietal lobe slows down. The thalamus helps focus your attention by channeling sensory data deeper into your brain and stopping other signals from firing. Meditation reduces the flow of incoming information to the thalamus. The reticular formation receives incoming stimuli and alerts the brain so it is ready to respond. Meditating actually minimizes the arousal signal. So why is the decrease in all of these brain activities a good thing? These activities are actually undesirable brain functions that are responsible for lapses in attention and disorders such as anxiety, ADHD, and even the buildup of beta amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease.

Before vs. After Neuroimaging

One of the most beneficial aspects of meditation is its effect on ATTENTION. It allows us to practice focusing our attention and awareness when it drifts. It also improves our focus when we’re not meditating. Anxiety is usually alleviated by meditation because it loosens the connections of particular neural pathways involved in anxiety. Creativity is also improved, as shown by a research study done in Leiden University in the Netherlands that looked at both forms of meditation and their effects on creativity afterwards. The participants who practiced open-monitoring meditation performed better on tasks that asked them to create their own new ideas. Furthermore, meditation has been linked to improving rapid memory recall. A study done at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging found that those who practiced mindful meditation were able to adjust and increase the productivity of the brain waves that block distractions more quickly than those who did not meditate. The ability to ignore distractions could explain the ability to rapidly remember and incorporate new facts.

We also have what is known as a ‘Me Center’ in our brains, which is called the medial prefrontal cortex, which processes information relating to ourselves and our experiences. Usually signals from bodily sensations and fear centers are sent to this ‘Me Center,’ and the neural pathways are really strong. When you meditate, however, these neural connections are weakened, which means that we do not react as strongly to sensations. While those connections are weakened, the connection to the ‘Assessment Center’ in our brains is strengthened. This part of the brain is known for reasoning. Ultimately with meditation, we are able to experience scary or upsetting sensations and more easily look at them rationally without overreacting.

Structurally, meditation is linked to larger amounts of gray matter in the hippocampus and frontal areas of the brain. More gray matter can lead to more positive emotions, longer-lasting emotional stability, and heightened focus during daily life. Meditation also diminishes age-related effects on gray matter and reduces the decline of cognitive functioning. Additionally, people exhibit higher levels of gyrification, which is the folding of the cerebral cortex as a result of growth. This allows for the brain to be better at processing information, making decisions, forming memories, and improving attention.

So take a moment to clear your mind, relieve some stress and anxiety, and allow your brain to strengthen. Namaste.

]]>http://sites.bu.edu/ombs/2014/02/08/the-power-of-meditation/feed/3Temptation: The Effects of Immediate and Delayed Rewardshttp://sites.bu.edu/ombs/2013/11/15/temptation-the-effects-of-immediate-and-delayed-rewards/
http://sites.bu.edu/ombs/2013/11/15/temptation-the-effects-of-immediate-and-delayed-rewards/#commentsFri, 15 Nov 2013 18:40:42 +0000Melissa Hellerhttp://sites.bu.edu/ombs/?p=6564As we approach the loved holiday season, we also approach the dreaded weight gain that comes along with it. It probably won’t come as a surprise to you that our brain, specifically the hippocampus, plays a role in resisting immediate or delayed temptation.

The hippocampus deals with memory, including recalling past events and imagining them in the future. A study called “A Critical Role for the Hippocampus in the Valuation of Imagined Outcomes” examines healthy people as well as people with Alzheimer’s disease, which impairs memory and is associated with atrophy of the hippocampus. The study looked at “time- dependent” choices having to do with money in addition to “episodic” choices having to do with food, sports, and cultural events.

Fifteen participants were given a series of decisions about choosing one reward over another, where one reward is immediate and the other is delayed. Some of the rewards were shown in a picture format and others were just given in a text format where the participants would imagine what the reward would be. Participants tended to choose the delayed reward when it was described in text, assumedly because it forced them to imagine in more detail.

In another, similar experiment, twenty participants faced the same kinds of decisions. The researcher concluded that research participants were consistent with themselves in what they chose, reflecting their individual impulsiveness. Depending on the person, they would choose the immediate reward or they were willing to choose the delayed reward, regardless of how it was presented. The researcher argued that there was a case to argue about an “impulsive trait” in some participants but not in others. This experiment also had a functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) component in order to look at the activation patterns in the hippocampus. The results found that the hippocampus was more active when the reward options were given in the text format because it forced the participant to be more imaginative and relate them to previous memories.

When using participants with Alzheimer’s, researchers found that these people tended to choose the reward shown in pictures rather than written in text. Researchers believe that the damage to the hippocampus in Alzheimer’s patients is extremely significant in evaluating these results, as it hinders their recall of positive food memories.

What did we learn? Well, with such a small sample size, there is a lot more research to be done to determine what the relationship between impulsive behaviors and brain activity is. There is currently a lot of research being done on the areas of the brain most associated with self- control.

How can we use this to help us this holiday season? Maybe this is a lesson in how certain foods are presented to us. It seems that according to these results, we will eat less with the food presented visually to us as opposed to on a written menu. And, maybe when trying to decide whether to have that last piece of pie, try not to imagine it. Have a happy holiday season!

“Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons….In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioural research laboratories running round inside wheels and conducting frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man. The fact that once again man completely misinterpreted this relationship was entirely according to these creatures’ plans.” – Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

As tempting as it may be to believe the science fiction version of the intelligence rankings, real-life science has spoken and suggests (much to my displeasure) that humans may actually be the highest on the intelligence scale.

Glia are non-neuronal cells found in the brain mainly described as performing “housekeeping” functions, for example, providing structural support to neurons, and providing them with nutrients. Astrocytes are a specific type of glia, and as one might hypothesize, they are bigger in humans than in mice. Was this just a consequence of humans having more complex brains, or do these astrocytes have different functions in humans beyond the basic housekeeping functions? To test this, scientists grafted human astrocyte progenitor cells into developing mouse brains to create chimeric mice.

Human astrocyte (green) and mouse astrocyte (red)

The human astrocytes that matured successfully matured as human cells; characteristics such as their size were unaffected by being in a mouse environment. But they did not remain completely foreign – they successfully formed electrical connections with the mouse cells. Their differing cellular properties were thus propagated into the mouse neural networks. Of particular interest is the hippocampus, the brain region important for learning and memory. Chimeric hippocampal slices had a higher level of baseline excitatory activity, and long-term potentiation (LTP), or synapse strengthening, was much greater. At the molecular level, this can be explained because the human cells express higher levels of a protein that promotes an increased number of glutamate receptors at the synapse.

There were also clear differences in the behavior of chimeric mice. Experiments were performed to test learning and memory abilities to corroborate the cellular results observed in the hippocampus. A classic fear conditioning experiment involves pairing a tone with a foot shock; mice learn to associate the two and exhibit freezing behavior after hearing a tone. Chimeras learned the association after only one tone/shock pairing. The learning persisted for several days, during which time control animals did not learn the initial association. The experiment was repeated as context fear conditioning, meaning that the mice were placed in different chambers that had varying floors and odors. Chimeric mice were able to differentiate between chambers significantly better than their control counterparts. In other learning and memory tasks, these mice learned their way through mazes faster and were better at familiar object recognition in novel contexts.

The results of this study show that glial cells have much more function beyond their basic housekeeping properties. A single cell graft manipulation was enough to significantly improve mouse performance on learning and memory tasks. Complexity of these cells has evolved with the brain, and this provides important new insight on how exactly this complexity has come to be. Future experiments could involve grafting chimpanzee or macaque glia, any differences observed could be key in outlining how our processing abilities evolved from our monkey fathers (I additionally support research with dolphin glia grafts, keeping on the theme of the three most intelligent species). Unfortunately, without the higher processing abilities made possible by human cells, mice likely cannot achieve the tasks and level of status they exhibit in the science fiction. It seems as though man has indeed correctly interpreted his relationship with the mouse.

Social gatherings are often the scene of hippocampal disruptions. (Scene from the movie Twelve)

“White Mike and his father moved after his mother died of breast cancer. It ate her up and most of their money. They can’t control the old radiators and its very hot in the spring time. In White Mike’s room, old unpacked boxes stick out of the closet so he can see them. Maybe you know how it is, maybe you don’t? But sometimes if you can’t see what you’re finished with its better. White Mike stripped to his shorts and laid down on the floor so he felt a little cooler. That’s how it was the first night in his new room and that’s how it still is. White Mike is thin and pale like smoke. White Mike has never smoked a cigarette in his life, never had a drink, never sucked down a doobie. He once went three days without sleep as a kind of experiment. That’s as close as he’s ever gotten to fucked up. White Mike has become a very good drug dealer.

Upper east side of Manhattan, beginning of spring break. All the kids home from boarding school and everyone has money to blow. White Mike is busy with pickups in Harlem, the other New York City, the one other kids White Mike sells to only know from rap songs. Its dangerous, but Lionel has the best bud. Ounces, and fifties, and dimes, and loud music, and packed houses, and more rounds. And kids from Hotchkiss, and Andover, and St. Paul’s, and Deerfield, all looking to get high. And tell stories about how it is, the kids from Dalton, and Collegiate, and Chapman, and Riverdale, who have stories of their own. All the same stories really. White Mike has different stories…”

-Twelve, 2009, Joel Schumacher

Memories are merely cards in the hallmark store that is life. There is always a card for the occasion, regardless whether it was planned or unassuming. Needless to say, the memory may be dismal or content, but who knows? One can hope that the birthday card is going to put a smile on the child’s face, but what does one expect from the individual who receives the card when they’re grieving a loss, big or small. As we see with our new friend White Mike, not all that glitters is gold. Memories can kill the vibe, jump starting a downward spiral into an internal hell or some other unhappy place where compensation and fulfillment is never felt. However, like any hell, there is also a heaven. A card that can be cherished, loved, and motivating. A ‘remember that time when’ moment or a flashback to ‘those day’s.’ But what happens when you lose control of yourself in a heaven or hell situation? What happens when your judgment becomes cloudy, your speech begins to slur, and what was once clear is now dark. What happens when you black out?

Blackouts represent periods of amnesia, during which we’re capable of participating in salient, emotionally-charged events or rather mundane ones. Yes you’re right, drinking large quantities of alcohol does often precede a blackout, but contrary to belief, this is not the be-all end-all for a guaranteed morning of ‘WTF’ just happened. As one might expect, given the excessive drinking habits of many college students (I won’t mention any names), this population commonly experiences blackouts. Broken into two distinct genres, blackouts are defined as either en bloc or fragmentary. En bloc blackouts are characterized by the ‘absolute zero level’ of recollection you may have of any of the heinous events that took place while you were under the influence; as if any ability to transfer short-term memory into long-term memory has been completely blocked. Fragmentary blackouts only involve partial blocking of memory formation a.k.a. you may remember their charm, but not the nitty gritty details of the hookup.

The hippocampus, an irregularly shaped structure deep in the forebrain, is critically involved in the formation of memories for events…or in our case the lack thereof. When one indulges in excessive alcohol exposure, the ability to form new long–term, explicit memories is impaired because of increasing deficits in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cell function. Normally structured to assist the hippocampus in communicating with other areas of the brain, drunk CA1 cells fail to maintain the cellular homeostasis behind memory formation. Ultimately, these changes lead to alterations in the activity of proteins, including those that influence communication between neurons by controlling the passage of positively or negatively charged ions through cell membranes, which is not good. Alcohol can then selectively alter the activity of these complexes of proteins, preventing the proper coordinated binding of neurotransmitters such as GABA, glutamate, serotonin, acetylcholine, and glycine.

The Process

Additionally, alcohol severely disrupts the ability of neurons to establish long–lasting, heightened responsiveness to signals from other cells which can lead to a laundry list of problems including failed calcium flux. Long story short, chemical imbalances = everything turns to s**t = ‘WTF’ in the morning. But alcohol isn’t the only villain here. Show of hands: Who else likes poppin’ Molly? Maybe some Valium? Or how about some Rohypnol? How about all three + Codeine blunts? Moral of the story, mixing other drug compounds with alcohol can and will dramatically increase the likelihood of experiencing memory impairments.

At the end of the day, drinking can take you to heaven or hell. As the rate of of Jägerbombing increases, so to does the magnitude of the memory impairments, for better or worse. Large amounts of alcohol, particularly if consumed rapidly (keg stand anyone?), can produce fragmentary or complete blackouts, which are periods of memory loss for events that transpired while you were drinking. Blackouts are much more common among social drinkers—including college drinkers—than was previously assumed, and have been found to encompass events ranging from conversations to iniquitous interactions between BU hockey players and their adoring fans a handful of girls. Too soon? All and all, let’s just be safe people!

In this post, I attempt to present two major metaphysical accounts of space by Kant and Leibniz, then present some recent findings from cognitive neuroscience about the neural basis of spatial cognition in an attempt to understand more about the nature of space and the possible connection of philosophical theories to empirical observations.

Immanuel Kant’s account of space in his Prolegomena serves as a cornerstone for his thought and comes about in a discussion of the transcendental principles of mathematics that precedes remarks on the possibility of natural science and metaphysics. Kant begins his inquiry concerning the possibility of ‘pure’ mathematics with an appeal to the nature of mathematical knowledge, asserting that it rests upon no empirical basis, and thus is a purely synthetic product of pure reason (§6). He also argues that mathematical knowledge (pure mathematics) has the unique feature of first exhibiting its concepts in a priori intuition which in turn makes judgments in mathematics ‘intuitive’ (§7.281). For Kant, intuition is prior to our sensibility and the activity of reason since the former does not grasp ‘things in themselves,’ but rather only the things that can be perceived by the senses. Thus, what we can perceive is based on the form of our a priori intuition (§9). As such, we are only able to intuit and perceive things in the world within the framework naturally provided by the capabilities and character (literally the under–standing) of our understanding. Kant then takes our intuitions of space (and time) as concepts integral to pure mathematics and as necessary components of our intuition (§10.91).

Kant develops that geometry is based on this pure intuition of space (and arithmetic on that of time) and advances that even after removing all sensations and empirical intuitions, the intuitions of space and time remain, proving them as the a priori intuitions that precede any form of empirical experience or sensation (ibid.103). Thus, our experience of space and the means by which we do geometry is a component of our intuition for Kant and does not require the existence of direct objects of experience. Rather, our awareness of things as they appear in space is woven into our intuition and is a basic characteristic of our experience. Kant goes on to describe space as the “form of outer intuition of our sensibility” in that it is the thing in which we perceive things, i.e. that it is a transcendental condition for sensation (§13.317). By this, we arrive at our understanding of the arrangements of objects in the world not by an empirical encounter, but by the form of our intuition. Therefore, Kant’s account makes geometry an intuitive practice that utilizes a basic component of our pure a priori intuition as opposed to our rational activity. In support, Kant offers that we determine a geometrical concept, e.g. congruency, not through concepts formed by reason, but through relations that are apparent as a result of our pure intuition (ibid.325).

Kant’s theory stands in stark contrast to that of Leibniz, whose account of space is intelligible through arguments in his Discourse on Metaphysics and Monadology. In the former Leibniz foreshadows the concept of the monad in arguing, “each singular substance expresses the universe in its own way,” which develops that the constituent, most fundamental components of reality itself are unique and infinite in number and contain all things present, past and possible (DM.9). In the latter work, Leibniz reiterates that each monad must be different from each other because no two monads can be identical, further establishing the notion of an infinite number of infinite substances that make up the universe (M8-9). Accordingly, objects in the world are made up of monads, which are self contained and distinct from one another. Based on Leibniz’s theory, we arrive at a higher order reality in which everything is separate, distinct and self-contained and therefore, space comes about as a consequence of the existence of objects. That is, when we perceive Leibnizian space, we perceive a thing produced as a result of the existence of two other separate objects.

Leibniz’s account of space also has implications for geometry. By his theory, our perceptions of congruent things for example, become a comparison of two objects made in perception and understood actively by reason. Evidence for this can be found in Leibniz’s arguments concerning physics and causality. Leibniz believes that God constructed the world (with monads) and everything in it in the best possible way (M1,3). As such, the universe carries a predetermined and pre-established order of cause and effect (M6,7) and Leibniz argues that we come to understand nature by finding causes from effects by the use of reason (DM19). Therefore, geometry becomes a rational activity when viewed from a Leibnizian perspective because it is an investigation of that which exists. For Leibniz, we must necessarily invoke our understanding of the nature of objects in the world to do geometry, and this conflicts with the intuitive nature that Kant ascribes to geometry. For Kant, our knowledge (or ‘cognition’) of space is a result of the form of our intuition that comes before sensibility, which makes our understanding of geometry intuitive. For Leibniz, space exists only because discrete objects exist in the world and our understanding of geometry comes from rational manipulations of those objects. Nevertheless, both Kant and Leibniz provide accounts for space that necessarily involve an a priori component rather than perception alone.

Cognitive neuroscientists are now suggesting that spatial cognition is a complex interaction of multiple brain circuits in parallel that make use of both allocentric and egocentric processing of the external world. A pivotally important concept in understanding spatial cognition has been the investigation of representation in the brain. “Representation” is a term that has been used in philosophy for centuries, and science is now using the term to refer to the neural picture of the external world as observed by our brain monitoring and imaging technology. The investigation of representation in the brain essentially involves solving the puzzle of how the world itself is represented physically in the brain. With respect to spatial cognition, the discovery of grid cells in 2005 suggests that a euclidean space is encoded in the brain itself by neurons, and that activation and deactivation of grid cells plays a major role in representing the spatiality of the external world to the perceiver. The discovery of grid cells also suggested a mechanism for the perception of one’s own location that is continually updated by input from the external world, suggesting that, similar to visual perception, the representation of space in the brain itself is an active phenomenon that varies just as much as the visual field.

Most, if not all, of the work on spatial perception and grid cells is performed on rats and conclusions made are inductively applied to humans, which makes us doubt how accurately these mechanisms can apply to the human brain. I say this because while many other studies of physiological phenomena in rats or mice (e.g. those on the cardiovascular and immune systems) may be stronger due to the increased homology to humans present in those systems. In other words, I think that the human and the mouse/rat brain differ quite significantly, perhaps more so than other organs and that this reduces the strength of our inductive conclusions. However, interesting studies are now being performed on humans which place a subject in a virtual maze through a computer program and measure brain activity through noninvasive methods such as functional MRI (fMRI). Many recent studies are pointing to the hippocampus as a major player in way finding and general navigation through virtual mazes, which suggests that our spatial perception is an evolutionarily refined phenomenon, but also one that is fundamental to our basic neural make up. Interestingly, the neural phenomena change when scientists investigate spatial cognition relative to landmarks (i.e. objects) as compared to studies in simple maze navigation. In these object-centric experiments, subjects navigated mazes and were cued with objects present in the virtual environment that they had to collect and place in a distinct virtual location, either at a specific landmark or in a general bounded area. Brain scans in these studies showed both hippocampal and striatal activation during the performed tasks, with hippocampal activity associated with the boundary task and striatal activity associated with the landmark task. Further, separate studies in rats performing similar spatial boundary tasks reveal that the activation of hippocampal “place cells” fire in boundary-space tasks, which scientists think are creating a matched representation of distances and angles relative to the boundaries in the visual field. Results from striatal activation are still unclear and are being more closely investigated. It has also been suggested that the hippocampal and striatal circuits act in parallel rather than in series or in combination. This makes sense given that spatial cognition may involve both boundary and landmark elements, as when we have to hammer a nail into a specific location or plug something into a power outlet.

Relating the philosophy and neuroscience presented in this post, it seems that both Kantian and Leibnizian conceptions of space are compatible with neuroscientific findings about spatial cognition. Kant’s theory applies to the current understanding of hippocampal, boundary influenced tasks in that both suggest a holistic conception of space – that is, space can be understood as object independent. On the other hand, Leibnizian conceptions of space and the landmark results suggest a more object-dependent framework for spatial cognition. As spatial cognition and perception are our most direct means to accessing and interacting with the external world, both scientists and philosophers of the future ought to work together on this enormously complex problem in an effort to postulate how spatial phenomena as presented to us by the mind relate to neural phenomena in the brain. Perhaps then we will move closer to filling the explanatory gap between the mind and brain.

Do you ever wonder how you are able to remember the name of your third-grade teacher, or the skills you use to ride a bike, or even lines from your favorite movie? Well, if you haven’t then you should, because it takes the workings of many regions of our brain to combine all the different aspects of one memory into a cohesive unit.

The first step in this complex process deals with our perceptions and senses. Think about the last time you visited the beach. Recall the sound of the wind and birds, the sight of the sun and ocean, the smell of the salt water and the feeling of the hot sand and shells underfoot. Your brain merges all of these different perceptions together, crafting them into the “memory” that we are able to recall.

All of these separate sensations travel to the part of our brain called the hippocampus. Along with the frontal cortex, the hippocampus plays a huge part in our memory system. These two regions decide what is worth remembering and then store this information throughout the brain.

Perception starts the processes leading up to encoding and storage, which takes place through our brains’ synapses (or the gaps between neurons). Through these synapses, neurons are able to electrically and chemically transmit information between themselves. When an electric pulse is fired across the gap, it triggers the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.

Here is a clear view of communication between neurons through the releasing of neurotransmitters over the synapse.

From there, the spread of information begins. The neurotransmitters diffuse to neighboring cells and attach to them, forming thousands of links. All of these cells process and organize the information as a network. Similar areas of information are connected and are constantly being reorganized as our brain processes more and more.

Changes are reinforced with use. So let’s say you are learning to play a sport. The more you practice, the stronger the rewiring and connections will become, thus allowing the brain to do less work as the initiation of pulses becomes easier with repetitive firing. This is how you get better at a certain task and are able to perform at a higher level without making as many mistakes. But again, because our brain never stops the process of input and output, practice needs to be constant in order to promote strong information retention.

Knowing all of this, it probably comes as no surprise that the most basic function for ensuring proper memory encoding is to pay specific attention to what you are doing. We are exposed to thousands of things in very short amounts of time, so the majority of it is ignored. If we pay more attention to select, specific bits of information, we’ll have a higher potential to remember certain things (try it out for yourself in lecture).

Since the actual process has been discussed, we’ll go into greater detail about the types of memory we have and how they differ. There are three basic memory types that act as a filter systems for what we find important. This is based on what we need to know and for how long we need to know it.

The first is sensory memory, which is basically ultra-short-term memory. It is based off of input from the five senses and usually lasts a few seconds or so. An example would be looking at a car that passes by and remembering what color it was based on that split second intake. The effect is vaguely lingering, and is forgotten almost instantly.

Short-term memory is the next category. People sometimes refer to it as “the brain’s Post-it note”. It has the ability to retain around seven items of information for about less than a minute. Some examples would include telephone numbers or even a sentence that you quickly glance over (such as this one). You have to remember what is being said at the beginning to understand the context. Likewise, numbers are usually better remembered, and have longer staying power in the brain, when split up (800-493-2751 instead of 8004932751 for instance).

Repetition and conscious effort to retain information leads to the transformation of short-term memory into long-term memory. By rehearsing information without interference or disturbances, one is better able to remember things and ingrain them into his/her brain. This is a gradual process, but it proves why studying is important! Unlike the other two memory categories, long-term memory has the ability to retain unlimited amounts of information for a seemingly indefinite amount of time.

This diagram shows a more complex view of the major memory types and their subdivisions.

A piece of information must pass from both sensory and short-term memory to successfully be encoded in long-term memory. Failure to do so generally leads to the phenomenon known as “forgetting”, something that many of us are all too familiar with ironically enough!

To give a common example of long-term encoding and memory retrieval, consider trying to recall where you have put your keys down. First, you must register where you are putting your keys and attention while putting them down so that you can remember later. Accomplishing all of this helps a memory to be stored, retained, and ready for retrieval when necessary.

Forgetting may deal with distraction, or simply just failure to properly retrieve a memory. That being said, it should be noted that there is no predisposition to having a “good” or a “bad” memories. Most people are good at remembering certain things (numbers, procedures and mechanisms for example) better than others (names, phrases, or even entire plays) and vice versa. It all depends on where you are able to focus your interests and your attention.

Hopefully, you will be able to remember some of this so that you can use your understanding of the complexities of the brain and memory encoding to your advantage. After all, your brain does all the hard work for you! Now you just need to pay attention and focus on what you find important and what you want to remember to best suit your own needs.